Everyday Adoptee Thoughts

Month: March 2017

It’s nice to meet you (maybe again), my name is Lily. We passed each other on Shaw Lane near the Planetarium, or held the door open to Case Hall for one another. We were in an IAH recitation together and partnered up because we happened to sit next to each other.

We went to the same high school, but didn’t realize it until years later when we looked back at our high school yearbooks. We had Physics class together, and ended up as lab partners in Chemistry. We worked together for a summer at the local frozen yogurt shop, but went our separate ways because your private school started at a different time than the public ones.

Throughout high school, and into college, I dreamt about “the one.” As much as I joke that I’m not a relationship person, I most certainly am indeed a relationship person. I blame it on my adoption and loss issues, but I also think I might just be needy. I’ve come to realize that “the one” may just be a myth, or maybe there are many “the one(s).”

The one who was our first love, who we were for sure going to marry – but realized that life goes on past high school. The one who we were their first loves; they taught us the guilt of breaking someone’s heart, and that the guilt of hurting someone else’s feelings is no reason to stay in a relationship.

There was the one we shared our first kiss with, all giggly and flushed. The one we shared our first sexual experience, still blushing but now trying to act much more mature. The one we spent late nights with in the summer and early mornings once school started again. The one who taught us to differentiate between platonic and romantic love, and the one who seemed to walk into (and leave) our lives at the perfect moment.

Maybe, possibly, there will be more “the one(s),” or maybe not. However, to every single “the one,” thank you. Thank you for teaching lessons of heartbreaks and bad decisions; for nights of staring at the stars, and afternoons filled with forehead kisses and whispered secrets. Thank you for your patience and empathy, and your temper and coldness – as they have all taught me more about the people in the world around me.

I have shaped myself a lot into who I am today, but it wouldn’t have been possible without you; and for that, I am eternally grateful.